July 4, 2011

Instead of Hot Dogs, Hamburgers, and going swimming in the sun... Chicken, Rice, and Preachin the Gospel! HAHA Happy 4th of July!!!!!!

What’s the Word Guys!?

So well Happy 4thof July!!! It’s so strange to think its the 4th of July! Cause well i haven´t seen a barbeque let alone a cheeseburger in about 8 months! HAHA, and of course it’s flippin COLD HERE! That just isn’t right that it is the 4th of July and its cold! HAHA But you’ll be happy to hear that I had my own little 4th of July partythis morning... I woke up to the Air Force Anthem in Honor of Grandpa Spencer, but I don’t have the one of the Army... Sorry Grandpa McGhie, but I listened to the Marines one as well... haha so I’m sure my comp was overjoyed with happiness to listen to Anthems of America the entire morning!!! HAHAHAHAHA Mo-Tab works magic in that CD!!! HOOOORAY FOR THE USA! My first 4th of July out of the states... man the states are great! HAHA and in the shower this morning I sang, “IM PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN, WHERE AT LEAST I KNOW IM FREE, AND I WONT FORGET THE MEN WHO DIED TO GIVE THAT RIGHT TO ME!!!”… and so on and so forth! So if all of you could do 3 favors for me today... First of all, eat a hot dog or a hamburger and LOVE IT, then Listen to that song at least once for me... “I’m proud to be an American”, Uncle Ricks favorite song... and then give the good old stars and stripes a salute for this guy!!! It will be much appreciated!

Well now onto my weekly report... To say the least I had one of my biggest Gringo moments of my life this week! So strap on and prepare for this one! So at the beginning of every month we go to the bank to draw out our money. And we always just do it in Soles, but for some reason we had to get it out in dollars and then trade it for soles.... yeah, you already know what’s coming! So me and my new Chilean companion (Peruanosdont like Chileans) leave the bank with a butt load of money to pay the pension and the room and laundry and all that stuff... So we go down a street where there are like 50 shops to exchange dollars.SO we find the shop with the best trade in and we enter. I had a crapload of money so we enter and we see the exchange rate, they do it all on their calculator and all is well. We are trading the money in and all that stuff. When they changed the money I started to count it all for like the 3rd time just in case, and they got annoyed and then took the money and started counting it out loud to me and made me feel stupid so i was like ya, ya it’s alright. We leave and get back to the room and my comp starts counting his money again. I was in the bathroom and he starts hooping and hollering, Hey!!! Hey!!! They robbed me 20 soles! And in Peru 20 soles is a pretty good amount of money. I though he was just being a psycho Chilean who is always accusing the Peruanos for robbing them of everything... haha! So I don’t say anything but he just kept freaking out so we counted his money and he WAS short 20 bucks, so then I start to get a little worried and I count my money and those tools jacked me 50 soles!!! GARBAGE! I was flippin ticked, 50 soles is a bunch of money, I mean the church only gives us like 85 soles for the whole month to live on so you do the math!!! So we got in a taxi and I was like,…WE ARE GETTING OUR MONEY BACK!!! But before we left we said a prayer and it calmed me down, and I got to thinking, what would Jesus do in this situation... My comp wanted to storm in there and just start rippin heads off, but I got an idea of how Christ would get his money back... So we get to the little sketchy shop and all the little money changers are in there and all got way excited thinking we were there to trade more money so they could rob us more... Boy,were they wrong! I entered and just said, “Sorry Hermanos, we forgot to invite you to join us in church this Sunday at 9 in the morning!” Then I whipped out a bunch of Hand out cards with the picture of Jesus and his red robe and said, also we have some gifts for you... laminated pictures of Jesus Christ!!!!! HAHAHAHA!!! I then started to explain a little about our missions, how we are here to serve Christ and it’s all service and they don’t pay us and the money is so that we can pay our pension and eat!!! I then said,”Now brothers you owe me 50 soles and my companion 20”... And you know what………… they all just immediately whipped out the money threw it on the table and just stared at the floor!!! HAHAHAHAHA!!! How about them apples!!!! They wouldn’t even look me in the eye! I finished up the invite to church told them that it would help them a lot and change their lives! I handed them the Handouts of Christ and we bailed!!! OOOOHHH HECK YEAH BABY!!! I felt like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid or Clint Eastwood in Dirt Harry... Come on Boy, Make my DAY!!! HAHA!! IT might sound way lame but it was totally Legit! Haha…. take that world!!! SO……. that was a big moment this week!!!! As of a week and a half ago we didn’t have 1 investigator and guess how many we had at church yesterday.... 5!!! WHAT!!! MIRACLES FROM THE HAND OF THE LORD! 3 of them have baptismal dates for the 23rd and we have a lesson with the others tonight and we are going to challenge them to see if they want to get baptized!!! MIRACLES; nothing more, nothing less! I love the mission, it’s really, really hard sometimes but I am learning lessons in these 2 years that would take 20 years to learn!

I have to say that your emails family, last week saved me!!! They were answers to my Prayers! Ainsley email of how we should give thanks for our challenges was just what I needed to hear, also Lineys email what so powerful, it put me to tears!!! Fam and Friends I love you all sososososo much, enjoy this 4th of July and don’t forget to sing, “I’m Proud To Be An American, really loud before the 4th is over!!!!!You are always in my thoughts and prayers, LOVE YOU GUYS!!!
Elder Spencer Marty McGhie.... HHOOORAY AMERICA!!!

Ps mom, the birthday package, i could use these things called the perfect pushup little hand things that twist, also lots of chocolate, fotos, surprises and a stapler!!! Also a family picture of all of us framed and ready! LOVE YALL SOSOSOSOSO MUCH
Have a great week and I will send a lot more pics the next week! PROVECHO this 4th of July!!!

BYE!

FAM!, I have a short time left, just to say my pensionista is the wife of the bishop and great! She isnt Hermana Genoveva but it’s all good!!! Also, yeah that La Florida market is right in my area! The chapel is just down the street! My area is huge and I live in the part called PIO PATA. Right by the big Catholic church! I miss you all so much and what! I read Ainsleys short email, CULINARY SCHOOL!!! THATA Girl!!! THATA Girl!!! Mom I had an amazing experience the other day in my prayer before I went to sleep, I started praying and I just got this distinctive feeling that you were either praying for me or talking to me or in my room just chatting it up with me (I do that a lot, this is Carrie, and I don’t care if it is weird because it makes me happy =) !! )! It was incredible! And then Ainsleys experience, that I was praying for her and she felt me praying for her, how amazing is that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Fam I love you and I need some prayers, I’m learning lots of patience and humility with Elder Pozo, The some of the people from Chile are like 5 year olds (not all of them, like my last companion, Elder Encina he was amazing), they like to pinch, push and just play little games to annoy you!Pray for me please! Oh and everything is about how much better Chile is than Peru and how it’s just so great and how the USA is lame! AHHH!!! I want to hit him sometimes, help me to be humble and patient....I am his trainer and I need to love him and teach him how to be a great missionary.it’s kind of hard but I am working on it, I just could use truck load of help!!!!.....................................PLEASE!!!!

Love You All Soooooooooooooooo Much!!!
CHAU!

Elder McGhie!!! LOVE YA!

Elder McGhie with his newbi companion Elder Pozo

Elder Mcghie with Elder Fogleman, he was Spencers Zone Leader in Huanuco!

Spencers Snail Mail Address (hurry and write to him :)!!

This is Spencers Mailing Address for the rest of his mission: ************************************** Elder Spencer McGhie, Peru Lima East Mission, Calle Los Agrologos 368, Urbanizacion Las Acacias de Monterrico, La Molina, Lima12Peru ************************************ To use dearelder.com, just choose the Peru Lima EastMission and write to Elder Spencer McGhie :)!! The dearelder.com letter deadline for each week is Sunday at midnight. Just FYI! Or you can send an email to my email address at: csmcghie@signs.com and I will get it to him :)! Oh, Spencer cant write emails to anyone but family so he will send you a letter back, it takes about 3 weeks!! :)

Inspirational Quotes from the emails of...Elder McGhie :)!!

"Welcome to the life of ajunior,brand new, gringocompanion!I feel likethe penguins on Madagascar sometimes,"Just smile and wave boys, just smile andwave"haha!"***********************************"...While we were waiting and waiting in the rain, I bought achocolate ice cream and sat and ate it cause I was depressed because of my stupidity, haha(helocked them out of their apt). I also bought some cookies (chocolate)...after I ate them I definitely felt better, just like in Harry Potter, chocolate can solve any problem,EVEN DEMENTORS !"*************************************So here we are in the middle of Peru, on our pday, hiking up this mountain and it was awesome! So the question is, "When you are a missionary, in the middle of Peru, hiking a giant mountain, what do you do while climbing the mountain?" Of course me and one of the other gringos in my district sang, Miley Cyrus, "ITS THE CLIMB"! Haha, I cant lie, it was so perfect and yes, sadly, I knew all the words along with the other gringos. Elder Porter from Arizona was singing with me.It was just so funny to think, "What the heck, Im in the middle of Peru hiking a mountain, now, what should I do?""I should definitely sing some Miley Cyrus right now!!" Haha!" So that was pretty awesome, we did sing it pretty well, with giant leaps and dance moves to go along with the song! Haha!******************************************************************So when they told us last week we were going to eat at The Area President House (his name is Pres. Pino) today,I laughed and said, funny joke, but they were dead serious!So today(Sunday)after Sacrament meeting Pres. Pino came down from the stand,shook my hand and pretty much starred straight into my soul and asked me…”So are you going to eat lunch at my house today?” I barely managed to get out any words and said,“umm, I think so?”Haha And,I said it with about the courage of Nevil Longbottombefore he becomes a man in the7th Harry Potter!Haha!!

Baptism Day

Spencer is now in Huanuco =)

This isnt the greatest map but it shows the 3 main places that Spencer has served in (in order): Huanuco, Huancayo, Lima-Santa Anita, Lima-La Molina, Mission Office in Lima, Huancayo and back to Huanuco!! =)

SOMETIMES I REALLY MISS MY CUTE SPENCER!!!

But I know he is where he is supposed to be and he is doing great =)!!!I LOVE YOU SPENCER!!!

IT IS IMPORTANT TO KNOW WHAT THE WEATHER IS LIKE FOR SPENCER!!!

Coming back soon, when I can figure it out!!:)!!!
I have tried and tried to get the weather thing to work on here and I just must be a spaz cause I had it once and now it is gone....................never to return....PROBABLY =( But I will try harder to get it to work!! Besides, no one looks at this part of the blog except for me!! I dont know if anyone ever even reads the blog???? =)